


Hospital for the Holidays

by polishmyarmor



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Queen Family Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 12:58:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polishmyarmor/pseuds/polishmyarmor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is my  first attempt at family feels--I hope it's okay! :-D</p></blockquote>





	Hospital for the Holidays

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ideal_girl (trainwreckdress)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/trainwreckdress/gifts).



Breathe in.

Breathe out.

 

Thea’s head, her arms, and a diagonal line across her chest pulsed with pain. She shut her eyes.

 

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

In.

Out.

Her eyes shot open at this one thought: Roy.

 

She looked to see if Roy was okay. He wasn’t there.

He wasn’t there. She sat up quickly, ignoring her body’s protests, and unbuckled her seatbelt, her arm feeling for the door handle at the same time. The door would not budge. Forgetting the cuts where the glass from the broken windshield had dug into her skin on impact, she slammed her arms against the door, forcing it open, and squeezing between her car and the parked car to stand on the street.

 

“Roy,” she screamed, half question, half command, but there was no answer.

 

 

In a nearby back alley, The Vigilante had Roy cornered, an arrow aimed squarely at his chest.

“What happened?” The Vigilante growled.

“I don’t know, I…we were just,” Roy’s hands moved in a half-circle outwards, as if offering information that he'd actually omitted, “and then this car came out of nowhere and slammed into us and I swerved and I think a second car hit us, like there were two of them and can you let me go make sure she’s okay please?”Roy’s eyes narrowed as he looked into the shadowed face of The Vigilante.

“No.”

“What—why?” Roy sputtered.

“You don’t have a scratch on you. Your clothes are torn, but you’re not hurt. At all.”

“I don’t care about that!” Roy shouted.

“I do. There’ll be questions, questions that you don’t want asked and that you definitely shouldn’t answer. You need to go, lay low for a while. I’ll contact you when it’s safe." The Vigilante began to drop his bow. "I’ll take care of your girlfriend.” 

“You swear?”

“Yes. Now go,” The Vigilante growled, stepping back. Roy felt The Vigilante's eyes on his back, and Roy did not turn back as he ran into the darkness.

 

 

After a moment, Oliver spoke to Diggle: “Do you have her, Dig?”

“On my way, Oliver. I’ll get her to the hospital. It was lucky you finally managed to tail Roy tonight. So, we’ll say it was a crazy jealous ex, maybe?”

“No!” Felicity piped in from headquarters. “You guys have the worst cover stories. Just tell the truth, it’ll be fine—it’s the holidays, there are loads of drunk drivers on the road, it’s not so unbelievable that their car would be hit.”

“And Roy?” Oliver demanded.

“His involvement will be handily deleted from the police records, obviously,” Felicity replied.

“Ok, Dig, you got that?”

“Loud and clear. I’m here; I’ll see you at the hospital.”

 

Thea had just managed to dig her phone out of her purse when he arrived. Diggle rolled down the window of his car.

“Miss Queen, you’re hurt.”

“Yes, Diggle, I just, it’s fine, it just hurts when I breathe. I need to find Roy.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine Miss Queen. Please, let me take you to the hospital.” Diggle began to get out of the car, ready to scoop Thea up.

Tears in her eyes, Thea turned to face Diggle, phone in her hand. “No. I don’t know where he went, I need to call him, to make sure he’s safe," She scrolled down to Roy's name, then hesitated. "He…sometimes he does stupid, dangerous things and I need to…”

“Alright, Miss Queen, but can you call him while we go to the hospital? Please. Your brother will never forgive me if I let you wait out here, bruises purpling and arms bleeding.”

Thea looked at Diggle and nodded, insisting on making her way to the back seat on her own. Diggle hopped into the driver’s seat and began to speed towards Starling General.

 

Oliver called his mother as he raced towards the hospital.

“Mom, it’s Oliver.”

“Hi Oliver, how are you, dear?”

“Fine Mom, it’s Thea.”

“Oh God, Oliver, what happened? Is she okay? Where is she? Where are you? Is she safe?”

“Mom, she should be fine. Diggle has her, he’s taking her to Starling General, I’m on my way now.”

“Me too.” Moira hung up the phone.

 

Oliver spoke into him com, streetlights a blurred shine off his motorcycle helmet as he drove. “Felicity, I’ll be in the hospital—can you make sure that Roy stays out of trouble? Let me know if he comes into the hospital so I can head him off?”

“Tapping into the surveillance cameras now,” Felicity responded, spotting Oliver as he pulled up to the front entrance.

“Oliver! Mask!” Felicity shouted as Oliver pulled his helmet off.

“Right, right, okay, thanks Felicity—do you know where Thea’s been taken?”

“Diggle just dropped her off—she’s in room 213.”

 

Moira whispered seriously into her phone as her driver sped through the brightly-lit streets of Starling City. “I need to know who did this. My daughter is in the hospital right now. I was told that Merlyn would be handled—if he’s done anything to harm her, I swear I will come after him with more than just the _name_ Ra’s al Ghul.”

Moira hung up the call, looking worried as the sign for Starling General became visible in the distance.

 

“Thanks.” Oliver wound his way through the waiting room and took the stairs two at a time, launching himself into the hallway and down towards room 213. Diggle was already there, waiting out in the hallway in bodyguard mode, hands clasped in front, shoulders back.

“Dig—how is she?”

“The doctor’s in with her now, but she lost consciousness in the car.”

“But she—she was standing up, she got out of the car, I saw...how could she…” Oliver dwindled off, eyes filled with worry.

“Oliver, she’s a Queen, she’s your sister—are you really surprised that she managed to stay awake long enough to make sure that her boyfriend was okay?”

“She talked to Roy?”

“Yeah, he told her that he was fine and not much else. I hope you know what you’ve gotten him into.”

“Felicity’s taking care of it,” Oliver responded, only willing to focus on the present. “Can you also have her check and see who was driving the cars that hit them—there may be a connection to the serum that we haven’t found yet."

“Sure, Oliver, we’ll let you know as soon as we find anything.” Just as Diggle finished reassuring him, the door behind him opened and the doctor stepped out.

 

“Are you family?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m her brother,” Oliver replied quickly.

“Your sister is going to be fine, but she’ll need to stay here for a few days for observation. She has a mild concussion, a hairline fracture of her sternum, some serious bruising, and some basic cuts and scrapes from the glass. She said she was in a car accident, so we’ll need to contact the police. Don’t you worry, with bed rest we expect she’ll make a full recovery.” With that, the doctor walked down the hall to the next room.

Oliver stepped into Thea's room.

“Thea,” was all he could manage to say.

“Ollie—I’m fine.”

“Fractured sternum, sure, that sounds like 'fine' to me,” Oliver replied, and Diggle only just managed not to roll his eyes at the irony, and positioned himself just outside the door once more.

Thea slowly propped herself up in bed, only groaning slightly, and said “It’ll heal. I just can’t believe those guys that hit us.”

“What, exactly, happened Thea?” Oliver asked softly.

“Well…”Thea began to blush.

“You did see what happened, right?”

Thea seemed to search the wall behind Oliver’s head for a useful explanation.

“Um, okay, do I not want to know?” Oliver’s voice went up just a bit.

“No, it’s just…we were kind of…”

“The longer this takes the more nervous I get, Speedy.”

“Fine. We were making out at the red lights.” Oliver half-sighed, half-laughed as Thea continued, “and all of a sudden, this one car side-swiped us, and we banged heads pretty hard. Roy has a skull like a bowling ball, apparently, and then we got hit again, this time from behind and that’s when we crashed into the parked car and I can’t believe that Roy’s not here.” Thea finished her description and looked down at Oliver.

“I’m just glad you’re okay, and I’m sure Roy’s fine,” Oliver said in his most soothing tones. “Mom’s on her way, too.”

“Mom. Great. Promise me you won’t tell her Roy was driving,” Thea pleaded.

“Why not? He didn’t crash into anyone, right?”

“No, it’s just. It means a lot to me, her liking Roy. Promise you won’t tell.” For the first time in a long time, Thea felt like she had her big brother back, like she got to be a little sister again, asking for a secret. She looked Oliver in the eye, waiting for his answer.

“Fine, Thea. Deal.”

 

“What deal?” Moira asked as she entered the room, breathless and flawless as always.

“Mom!” Moira swept Thea up into a gentle, yet all-encompassing, hug.

“What deal? Thea, what happened? I saw your doctor and she said that your sternum is fractured.” Moira’s hands worked, brushing Thea’s hair back from her face, adjusting her pillow, softly touching the bandages that wrapped Thea’s arms where the glass had been removed, looking at her daughter, _her daughter_ in the hospital. Again.

“Mom, it’s fine, just some drivers came out of nowhere and hit me, but then Mr. Diggle found me somehow and drove me here, and it’s fine, I swear to you I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? Have you spoken to the police yet?”

“No, not yet—can’t my statement wait until tomorrow? Can’t we just sit, for just a second?”

“Besides Mom,” Oliver added, “there are traffic cams everywhere, it shouldn’t be too hard to catch whatever idiot driver did this.”

“Exactly. Now, I intend to watch some hard-earned soap operas. Mom?”

Moira handed the remote to Thea and pulled a chair up next to the bed. “You said something about a deal?”

“Right." Oliver replied, "I’m not much for soap operas, I was trying to get Speedy here to agree to a card game. Let me go grab some cards, I’ll be right back.” He stepped outside.

 

Moira’s phone buzzed, and she surreptitiously tilted the screen in time to read the message: “NOT MERLYN. THEA SAFE.”

Thea tapped her mother’s shoulder playfully. “No cell phones in the hospital Mom, they’re not allowed. Besides, this plot requires your undivided attention.”

“Right, dear, now who is that fellow?” Moira’s shoulders relaxed as she gave that undivided attention to her daughter.

“That’s the billionaire with a heart of gold, and that guy’s his best friend and they…” Thea described the show happily to her mother until the pain meds mixed with the comfort of family and she fell asleep.

 

“Alright, Dig, I need cards.” Oliver nodded to Diggle as he stepped out of Thea’s room and began walking towards the gift shop. He tapped his ear, “Felicity, you still there?”

“Yeah, you’re not going to believe this.”

“What?”

“It really was just two drunk idiots.”

“What?” Oliver replied, incredulous. “So, no serum, no Triad, no nothing? Just drunk idiots?”

“Yeah, and the police caught them about five minutes after they hit Thea and Roy—they were drag racing of all things!”

“So they’re caught,” Oliver confirmed.

“Yes—there’s no one to hunt, no vengeance needs meting out tonight. Go, be with your sister.” Felicity hung up.

Oliver turned to Diggle.

“I’ll keep watch on the door, you worry about those cards,” Diggle offered. It seemed strange to be happy about drunken idiots, but if it meant getting Oliver the night off, then Diggle was fine with strange happiness.

 

When Oliver returned with the cards, his mother looked up and shushed him, pointing to his sister.

“She’s asleep,” Moira whispered.

Oliver pulled up a chair on the other side of Thea’s bed, propping his feet on a bedside table.

“So, Mom, what are we watching?”

“Well, it’s the story of this billionaire…”

 

When Thea woke up that morning, she looked to her right and left and saw her Mom and her brother asleep beside her. They looked up when they heard her moving.

“Thea, sweetheart, how are you feeling?” Moira asked, concern in her voice.

“I feel good…really good. Just, let’s not wait for another one of us to be hospitalized to hang out like this, okay?”

Moira and Oliver looked guiltily at each other, each assessing their own failings over the past months, preoccupied as they'd all been with their own grief and problems. Sure, they’d been in the same home together, but they hadn’t really lived together, not like this, not quite like a family.

“Well, I know Oliver certainly needs to keep up with his soaps—why don’t we make a family night of it?" Moira offered, smiling slyly.

“Fine by me,” Oliver said, grinning.

“Yeah,” Thea replied, “absolutely fine. Told you things would be fine.” With that, she gently slapped her brother’s shoulder and lay back against the pillows, settling in for a day with her family. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at family feels--I hope it's okay! :-D


End file.
